Changing Mission
by Peach Wookiee
Summary: Alternate timeline oneshot. Wesley chooses to tell Captain Picard what he's really feeling about going to Starfleet Academy. Read and review... Please?


Changing Mission: A Wesley Crusher Tale

_Hi, fellow Trekkers! It's been a while since I wrote a story for this genre; I've been writing for my favorite anime and cartoons. I have to be in a certain mood to write certain fics, or it just has to flow. __This one was probably in my head somewhere, but it really started to make sense a short time ago.__ And then I had to fire up my DVD of the episode, "Final Mission." I had to be sure how I was going to write this story._

_My previous tale, "Is This All That I Am?" dealt with Wesley's feelings of how he felt a bit trapped and didn't want to disappoint his surrogate family__. This story, however, is one where Wesley finds the courage to __tell his family he doesn't want to go to Starfleet Academy…_

_Disclaimer: Star Trek and its spin-offs are the property of Paramount Pictures and the brain-child of the late Gene Roddenberry. This story, however, is my idea…_

Wesley Crusher had just heard the words he thought he'd been longing to hear for three years. _You report in two weeks to Starfleet Academy_, Captain Picard had just said. Wesley had smiled, but then something came over the eighteen-year-old. _I don't want to do this…_

"Wesley?" Captain Picard asked. "Is everything all right?" Everyone was looking at him, including Counselor Troi, who could read the boy's emotions. She was looking at him, urging him, it seemed, not to lie to the captain.

Wes took a deep breath, and let it out before he would speak again. _Maybe I should just say nothing's wrong, and let them all think it's okay. No! I have to say it._ "Captain Picard, could I speak to you in the ready room, please, sir?"

Picard exchanged glances with his command crew. Counselor Troi was giving him the look of concern only she could give with her soulful Betazoid eyes. "All right, Mr. Crusher. Follow me, then." They walked off the main bridge to the captain's ready room. Counselor Troi, meanwhile, called down to sickbay.

"Troi to Dr. Crusher."

"Go ahead, Deanna…"

"I think you need to come up to the bridge. Something is happening with Wesley…"

Dr. Crusher, not busy at the moment, and confident that Nurse Ogawa could take care of everything, headed up to the bridge. Meanwhile, in the ready room, Wesley Crusher sat down, scared to tell the man that had more or less become the father he'd lost that he didn't want to do what this man had made possible.

Captain Picard went to the replicator and got himself and Wesley steaming cups of Earl Grey tea. "Wesley, what is it? You seemed happy for a moment, and then… you seemed upset. What did you want to tell me?"

Wesley took a sip of the tea that Picard handed him. He waited until the captain was sitting down, took another breath, and… somehow the words weren't coming easy. "Sir… I…"

"Ensign Crusher, if there is something going on, I need to know about it…" Picard was concerned, and yet he wanted the boy to come out with it.

Just as Wesley took another breath, collecting his thoughts, Beverly came in to the room, looking worried. "Wes, what's wrong?"

"Hi, Mom. I guess this'll be a little easier with both of you here… I don't want to attend the academy."

Jean-Luc and Beverly exchanged glances, not believing that they'd heard right. Wesley, saying he didn't want to go when he'd worked so hard for it? It was almost unthinkable.

"Wesley, when did this happen? If you're afraid…" Beverly asked her son, genuinely puzzled.

"Mom… Captain… this is the hardest thing I've ever had do. But I feel like I have to do it. I've done everything you've asked of me and more. But… going to the academy doesn't feel right. Captain, I know what you're probably going to say, that going to the academy is growth. But… I'll just be there what I've been here… a brain. All anybody sees when they look at me is Wesley Crusher, boy genius. I can't do it anymore. Permission to leave the bridge and your ready room, sir…"

Captain Picard, definitely taken aback, said, "Permission granted, Mr. Crusher. Go and collect yourself." Without another word, Wesley left.

It was then that Beverly broke a little bit. "Jean-Luc, what is going on with him? All he's talked about…"

"Beverly…" Jean-Luc Picard's voice was suddenly a bit thick. "Beverly… has it been just him? Or have we just assumed that's what he wanted?"

Beverly wasn't sure how to answer this one…

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Wesley sat alone in his quarters, feeling free but feeling horrible at the same time. _Have I just thrown my whole life away? Or have I done something right? I feel like I had to do it,_ he told himself, _but have I really made the right decision?_ He pondered the answer to this for quite a while. And then the door chime rang.

"Come in," he said.

The entire command crew came into the room. "Wesley," Captain Picard said, "we're all here, all right?"

"I don't want to disappoint any of you, least of all you, Mom and Captain Picard. I know I said it was what I wanted, but…"

Then Deanna Troi spoke up. "Wes, when I was on Betazed, before I met Commander Riker, I thought I wanted what my mother said I wanted…to be high in Betazoid society. There were times I questioned that, but it wasn't until Will that I broke free of what I wanted because others wanted it for me."

Worf added, "It is honorable to follow your true path."

Geordi LaForge chimed in, "Wes, you're not disappointing me. I'm proud of you."

"I am pleased if you choose to remain on the Enterprise, Wesley. I would be pleased to teach you the intricacies of poker so that you may beat Commander Riker," Data added.

And then Commander Riker said what they were all feeling… "Wes, no matter what, you have to be true to who you are. And if that means you don't go to the academy, we'll support you and help you how we can."

Wesley could see they were all telling him what they genuinely felt. "You're really okay with this?" he asked. Everyone nodded, and in a break of Starfleet protocol, they hugged the young man, letting him know they were okay with his decision and him.

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As was originally planned, Wesley went with Jean-Luc Picard with a pilot named Dirgo on a ship bound for Pentaurus 5. The ship crashed, and in the course of things, Captain Picard was badly hurt and Dirgo died due to his own stupidity. Wesley managed to keep himself and the captain alive until the Enterprise crew could find them. And instead of going to Starfleet Academy, Wesley returned to the Enterprise and followed his dreams of exploration…

--_Somewhere in the Universe—_The Traveler had been watching Wesley and had feared the boy was not yet ready to choose his path for himself. However, he was very pleased at what he now saw. "Good, Wesley. You will be all right, now."

**THE END**

_Sometimes, the hardest thing to do is take control of your own destiny. The people who truly love you will support you. Please read and review._


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